Adjustable swift



A. E. ANDERSON.

ADJUSTABLE SWIFT.

APPLICATION FILED DEC-2?, 1920.

Patented Dec. 27, 1921.

FIG. 2

INVENTOR JW M UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ADJUSTABLE SWIFT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 27, 1921.

Application filed December 27, 1920. Serial No. 488,278.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBIN E. ANonRsoN, a citizen of the United States,and resident of Oakmont, in the county of Allegheny and State ofPennsylvania,'have invented a new and useful Improvement in AdjustableSwifts; and I do hereby declare the followbrake controlled by thetension of the wire being drawn from the coil.

In a general way, my improved swift consists of a circular plate mountedfor free rotation on a central spindle and provided with radial slots inwhich are screw shafts that support the vertical rods which form thebody of the swift. The several. screw shafts are suitably gearedtogether so that by turning one of them all of the shafts will be turnedequally and the-arms will be correspondingly adjusted in radialdirections. The arms are held vertical by means of suitable braces,connected between the arms and a collar carried on the central spindle.The wire, as it leaves the swift, passes beneath a sheave which isconnected to a brake in such a way that if the wire becomes slack thebrake will operate to reduce the speed of rotation of the swift, andwhen the wire is again tightened the brake will be released, thuspermitting the swift to rotate faster.

In the accompanying drawing, which shows a preferred embodiment of myinvention, Figure 1 is a side view, partly in elevation and partly insection, and Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view of the structure taken onthe line 2'-2, Fig. 1.

In the drawing the numeral 2 designates a stationary central spindlemounted vertically in a standard 3. A plate 4, which may suitably bepressed from sheet metal, has a downturned peripheral flange 5, acentral sleeve 6 which surrounds the spindle 2 and forms a bearing forthe plate 4, and a second downturned flange 7 which surrounds the sleeve6. Radial slots 8 are formed in the plate 4 and below each of theseslots is a screw shaft 9 having its ends received in bearings 10 and 11in the flanges 5 and 7 respectively. A vertical bar 12 is mounted totravel on each of the screw shafts 9 and for this urpose is providedwith a screwthrea ed sleeve 13 at its lower end.

Each of the screw shafts 9 carries at its' inner end a bevel pinion 14,and all of the inions 14 mesh with a bevel gear 15 whichoosely-surrounds the central spindle 2 and rests on a ball-bearing 16.One or more of the screw shafts 9 have squared outer ends to receive asocket wrench 17, a socket 18 being formed around the squared end of theshaft to admit the wrench. When one of the shafts 9 is turned by meansof the wrench 17, all of the shafts are turned correspondingly by reasonof the interconnection formed by the bevel pinions 14 and the bevel gear15, and all of the arms 12 are thereby moved radially toward or from thespindle 2.

A. brace 20 connects each of the vertical arms 12 to a central collar 21which surrounds the spindle 2 and is adjustably held thereon by meansofa collar 22 having a set-screw 23. v

The wire 24 drawn off from the coil 25 passes beneath a sheave 26 andthence to a bobbin 27. The sheave 26 is carried at the upper end of anL-shaped brake lever 28, the horizontal portion of which carries aweight 29 that may be secu'red in any position on the lever 28 by meansof a set-screw 30. The lever 28 surrounds the central spin-- dle 2 andis pivoted at 31 for vertical rocking movement. At the end of the lever28 opposite to the weight 29 is secured a brake shoe 32 which is adaptedto engage the outer side of the flange 5 of the plate 4.

In operation, the swift is adjusted to the internal diameter of the coil25 by applying the socket wrench 17 to the end of one of the shafts 9and turning this shaft to move the arms 12 in the radial slots 8, andwhen the arms 12 are properly adjusted, the collar 22 is moved intocontact with the collar 21, thus fixing the position of the braces 20.The wire is then led beneath the sheave 26 and to the bobbin 27, and theweight 29, is adjusted on the lever 28 so as to apply the desiredtension to the wire. This tension should be such that the brake shoe 32is out of contact with the flange 5 when'the wire is being drawn offfrom the swift at the proper rate, but will engage the flange 5 when thewire becomes slack with a pressure proportional-to the slackness of thewire.

Various changes in the form and arrangement of parts may be made bythose skilled in the art without departing from my invention, and Itherefore desire that no limitations be imposed upon my invention exceptsuch as are indicated in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A swift comprising a rotatable support, screw shafts arrangedradially on the said support and permanently geared to rotate togetherand coil-supporting arms associated with the said screw shafts andadapted to be moved thereby, and means for turning one of said :crewshafts and for thereby simultaneously adjusting all of said arms.

2. A swift comprising a circular rotatable support, coil-supporting armscarried by the said support, a brake, and means for applying the edge ofsaid brake to the said support in accordance with the tension of thewire drawn from the swift, the said braking means comprising an L-shapedlever having a vertical arm and a horizontal arm pivoted adjacent to thesaid central spindle, a brakeshoe carried by one end of the horizontalarm of said lever adjacent to the edge of said support, a sheave carriedby the vertical arm of the said lever and adapted to be suspended fromthe horizontal arm of said Wire, and a weight adj ustably mounted on thesaid lever.

3. A swift comprising a rotatable support, screw shafts arrangedradially on the said support and permanently geared to rotate together,and coil-supporting arms associated with the said screw shafts andadapted to be moved thereby, at least one of the said screw shaftshaving its outer end formed for engagement with a wrench, whereby all ofthe said coil-supporting arms may be simultaneously adjusted by applyinga wrench to the end of one of the said screw shafts.

4. A swift comprising a circular rotatable plate having spaced circularflanges, bearings formed in the said flanges, screw shafts supported inthe said bearings, at least one of the said screw shafts having itsouter end formed for attachment to a wrench, a socket formed in theouter flange and surrounding the said wrench-receiving end of the saidscrew shaft, coil-supporting arms carried by the said screw shafts,bevel pinions carried by the inner end of the said screw shafts and aloose bevel gear meshing with all of the said pinions.

5. A swift comprising a circular rotatable support having a peripheralbrake-engaging surface, radial shafts carried by the said support andgeared to rotate together, and coil-supporting arms movably carried bysaid shafts, the ends of the said shafts being countersunk beneath thesaid brake-engaging surface and at least one of the said shafts havingits end formed for engagement with a wrench.

In testimony whereof, I, the said ALBIN E. ANDERSON, have hereunto setmy hand.

ALBIN E. ANDERSON.

Witnesses:

Roar. D. To'r'rEN, JOHN F. WILL.

